Rubber cushioned glide



' Mar h 20, 9 H. THORNSBURY 2,738,541

RUBBER CUSHIONED GLIDE Filed Dec. 17, 1952 IN VEN TOR.

eany liar/vainly W WQW Negn- Company, Augusta, Ky., a corporation ofKentuc Application December 17, 1952, Serial No. 326,462

2 Claims. (CI. 16-42) The present invention relates to rubber cushionedglides, such as are used on the ends of tubular furniture legs, and hasfor an object the provision of a glide that is easily applied and whichis especially arranged and constructed to assure non-removable mountingand to successfully resist destruction by transient users of thefurniture who sometimes mischievously employ remarkable skill and brutestrength in endeavoring to remove or to damage the furniture glides.

Another object of the invention is to provide a device of the classdescribed which affords long and efiicient service and safety in use.

These and other objects are attained by the means described herein andexemplified in the accompanying drawings, in which: I

Fig. l is an elevational view, partly broken away and shown partly insection showing a rubber cushioned glide of the invention operativelyconnected to a tubular metal furniture leg.

Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view taken on line 22 of The use of caps orglide shoes on the ends of the metal tubular legs of furniture has beensubject to numerous efforts and arrangements to save the surface of thefloor, to render the furniture easily movable thereover, to suppressnoise occasioned by such movement and to provide for safe tilting of thefurniture in the routine use thereof. In ice cream parlors, taverns andthe like the tubular metal furniture is at times roughly used and isoccasionally subjected to mischievous pranks of patrons who seek toremove one or more of the glides from a chair or table and thus render.it unstable. The maintenance of tubular metal furniture in somelocations is a costly and vexatious problem that has not heretofore beensatisfactorily solved.

The device of the present invention affords the maximum in the cushionedself-leveling, quiet, and safely tiltable features afforded by highquality rubber cushioned furniture glides and at the same timeeffectively resists any and all attempts to forcibly detach the deviceor destroy it without the use of suitable tools.

The device 10 as illustrated is constituted of a preassembled unit whichis subject to application to a tubular leg 11 by driving it in placewith a hammer or the like without danger of distortion of its parts torender them ill fitting and with assured conformation of the elements ofthe device to the respective exterior, interior and bottom edge portionsof the tubular leg to which it is applied.

The rubber cushioned glide of the invention comprises an axially boredcushion body 12 having a peripheral enlargement or bead 13 surroundingit at the lower end of its outer cylindrical face and depending a shortdistance below the bottom 14 to provide in the bottom of United StatesPatent 2,738,541 Patented Mar. 20, 1956 2 the cushion a shallow recess15 of a diameter approximating that of the top 16 of said cushion. Acircum ferential groove 17 encircles the cushion body 12 immediatelyabove the top of bead 13 and thus overhangs the inner periphery ofrecess 15.

A tubular ended rivet, indicated generally by the reference numeral 18,has a flat head 19 seated on the bottom 14 of the cushion 12 surroundingthe open end of the axial bore 20 in the cushion while the shank 21 ofthe said rivet extends upward through said bore. The

thickness of the rivet head 19 is less than the depth of recess 15 inthe cushion bottom.

Secured on the top 16 of the cushion, in the order named, are a drivecap 22, an outwardly flanged dome- 23 and a stifi, resilient and sharppronged washer 24. The tubular end is turned over at 25 on top of washer24 and securely mounts the latter on top of dome 23. The dome may haveits flange formed of a plurality of angularly disposed parts 230, asillustrated, but in any event however formed and shaped the flange seatson the interior fiat bottom of cup 22 and is substantially selfcenteringWithin the circumferential side wall of said cup. By reference to Fig. 2it will be noted that the end,

A cup shaped glide shoe 29 seats on the bottom face of washer 27 and hasits side turned upwardly around bead 13 and inwardly into the groove 17of the cushion body and is tightly crimped to compress and rigidify thebead 13 and an inwardly adjacent marginal portion of thecushion that isdisposed between the top face of washer- 27 and the overhanging rim ofthe glide shoe in the.

groove 17 above the washer 27. It will be observed that the cushion bodyis under very little compression in the horizontal zone between thebottom of drive cap 22 and the level of the top of the inturned edge ofthe glide shoe when the piece of furniture of which leg 11 is a part, is

under little load; and further that there is in fact a small air cushionspace formed within the interior of opening 28 in washer 2'7 surroundingthe sides and major face of the rivet head into which space some of thecushion body may be forced when suflicient pressure is applied.

The application of the rubber cushioned furniture glide to the squarelycut off end of a metal tube such as 11 is quickly effected by turningthe open hollow end of the tube upwardly and entering the tapering orinclined face of resilient washer 24 into the opening in the legwhereupon the completely preassembled device 10 will assume aself-adjusted position. A sharp blow with a hammer or mallet on thepolished bottom exterior face of the glide shoe will effect a suficientcompression of the unconfined part of the cushion to transmit the forceof the blow to the rivet and flex the prongs of washer- 24 to enter thepoints inside the hollow interior of the. leg 11. One or more furtherhammer blows will newforce the hollow open end of drive cap 22 in tightfric tional binding relation With the exterior circumferential face ofleg 11 and incidentally effect a compensating enlargement or spreadingof the flange of said cap to justify it with any variation inpermissible Wall thickness or outside diameter of said tube 11. At thesame time the prongs of washer 24 are resiliently accommodating thepoints 26 thereof to the inner surface of tube 11 so that said surfaceis but lightly scored by the points while the device is being driveninwardly until the end edge of tube 11 seats on the flange portion 230.

From the foregoing and from an inspection of Fig. 2 it -will be notedthat when the glide shoe is resting on the floor, when the furniture isin use, any directly downwardly acting load will be cushioned by thehorizontal section of body 12 which is circumferentially exposed and bythe concealed and connecting inner portion below which is not rigidifiedand permanently compressed by' the washer 27 and the crimped flange ofthe glide shoe. The tilting of a chair or the like on one or two legssuch as 11 will admit of localized compression of the free cushionmaterial and a degree of deformation thereof while the shank and head ofthe rivet maintain a position unchanged with respect to the leg buteffecting some localized internal deformation of the interior of thecushion body. Any sudden heavy impact downwardly on the leg 11 will notbe immediately transmitted through the .rivet head to the center ofglide shoe resting on the floor. Nor will the pulling of a chair ortable, equipped with the devices, over an irregular hard floor surfaceset up any harsh metallic chatter. The long life and continuedefiicientfunctioning of the device under all normal or probable conditions of useare thus provided for in the structural arrangement and relationship ofthe parts.

The aforementioned arrangement and relationship of the parts not onlyenables the devices to be initially applied with ease and dispatch butit serves to non-removably secure each device to an end of a hollowtubular member in a manner that will withstand separation and looseningunder both normal and rough handling of the furniture, and it willeffectively resist attempts to deliberately remove or damage the device.It has been generally and specifically provided in hitherto known andused glides for a proper use of furniture supplied with such glides thatthe glides are removably attached to the legs or that no effectivearrangement was provided to prevent removal or destruction of theglides. However, in the construction and arrangement of the devices ofthis invention, the use of brute strength is ineffective because thereis no way of simultaneously displacing the leg securing means because ofthe cooperative reaction of drive cap 22, dome 23, pronged washer 24 andrivet 21 against external forces however applied. Cap 22 cannot beeither independently distorted or sufficiently exposed at the free edgeof the rim to enable a mischievously active person to get a successfulpurchase or him thereon with the edges of the soles of the shoes.Similar e'tforts directed onto the smooth arcuate rim surface of theglide shoe 27 are likewise frustrated and, due to the peripheral zone ofrigidification inwardly of the shoe and the support afforded at thebottom center of the cushion by the head of the rivet it is impossibleto tear the cushion body or to distort it in the critical area so as tolocally displace the rubber from the shoe for removing the latter. Thedevices once applied have proved to 'be definitely non-removable byvariously designed tests of force and skill. Only by the use of propermetal cutting tools is it possible to remove the devices and then onlyby piecemeal destruction.

What is claimed is:

1. In a rubber cushioned furniture glide the combination of a yieldablecushion body having a peripheral head around the exterior side wall atthe bottom and provided with a peripheral groove above and immediatelyadjacent the bead and further having in the bottom of said cushion ashallow recess of a diameter approximating that of the top of thecushion, a rigid washer seating with its top face and outer edge incontact with the bottom and inner edge of the recess and having itsbottom face flush with the bottom of the head, a rivet extendingupwardly through the center axis of the cushion body and provided with ahead passing freely in noncontacting relation through the enlargedcenter opening of the washer and seating directly on the bottom of thecushion body, a metal glide shoe seating on the bottom of the washer andbead and extending in rigidly crimped relation upwardly around theexterior of the bead and into the peripheral groove for compressing thebead and an adjoining marginal portion of the cushion against theperiphery and a top marginal face of the washer, and means connected tothe top of the cushion by the rivet for securing the device to a tubularleg and for rigidly retaining the rivet concentric with said leg.

2. The combination as set forth in claim 1 and characterized by the factthat the leg securing means is 'constructed and arranged fornon-removable mounting on the end of a tubular metal leg and saidsecuring means includes an upwardly open drive cap seated on 'top of thecushion for drive fit connection with the exterior wall of the leg, anoutwardly flanged dome seating in the bottom of the drive cap andretained concentrically the cap by said flange, said dome adapted to befixedly positioned concentrically within the tubular leg by the clampingof the flange between the bottom edge of the leg and the fiat interiorbottom of the cap and a resilient washer mounted on the dome and havinghardened resilient prongs turned diagonally downwardly toward the toprim of the drive cap, the upper end of the rivetpassing'through thebottom of said cap, the top of the dome and said pronged washer andturned over on top of the latter for rigidly retaining the rivet'immovably concentric with the cap and dome.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,855,625 Darnell Apr. 26, 1932 2,613,957 Ritter Oct. 14, .19522,641,016 Kramcsak June-9, 1953

